Megyn Kelly and Bill Maher in fiery on-air clash over Donald Trump ‘fascism’ and Hitler comparisons

Bill Maher and Megyn Kelly cited Adolf Hitler and other dictators as they argued over whether Donald Trump was a threat to democracy.

The pair were discussing the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Maher’s show when it went off the rails as four other countries plus Nazi Germany were swept away.

Maher was the first to prove Godwin’s law when he began comparing the current geopolitical situation to the Axis versus Allies of the 1930s.

‘We thought Putin would be isolated if the war in Ukraine started. He is not isolated,” Maher began.

“He had the BRICS countries – that’s Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and now four or five other countries – about half the world’s population, about 35 percent of GDP.

‘These are the dictator countries. There is a very WWII feeling here, when the dictator countries come together.

‘What did Hitler and the Japanese have in common in World War II? Nothing! Only they only saw the world in one way: fascism.’

Brazil was a military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985 and then returned to democracy until the presidency of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.

He was defeated by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the 2022 elections, but claimed voter fraud, his supporters stormed parliament and he reportedly planned a self-coup to keep himself in power, but that failed.

India is a functioning democracy, but democratic institutions have eroded over the past decade since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister.

“Through its control of the media, monopolization of campaign finance and intimidation of opponents, India appears on its way to becoming an illiberal pseudo-democracy, comparable to Turkey or Russia,” Chatham House wrote last year.

“Opponents and critical journalists have been harassed, prosecuted, investigated for tax irregularities or placed under surveillance, restricting critical voices.”

China is a one-party dictatorship and South Africa has strong democratic institutions, a free press and an independent judiciary, but is plagued by corruption and political violence remains stubbornly persistent.

BRICS also includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the UAE – all of which are dictatorships or seriously flawed democracies.

Despite the flawed claims of a ‘dictatorship’, Maher continued his comparison of the BRICS to the Axis – and warned that the US could be next.

“Somehow the world seems to be divided between the good guy countries – the democratic countries – and these autocracies. And if your man comes in, we’ll be on the wrong side of this case,” he said.

Kelly countered that Trump didn’t start wars or involve the US in new conflicts when he was president, and expected the same in his second act.

“Putin only invaded Ukraine when Biden took over. We had the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, which projected weakness across the world,” she claimed.

‘People understood that we were weakened, and that was actually provocative. Weakness is provocative.’

As president, Trump negotiated with the Taliban over the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, allowing the terrorist group to retake the country, but the troops were not scheduled to leave until after his term ended in 2021.

“Trump has destabilized these people. They didn’t know what to expect from him. Next thing you know, he’s bombing Soleimani,” Kelly continued.

“Trump carried out strategic attacks with people on their heels, not knowing what he could do to them.”

Maher said he was less concerned about that and more about “what he might do to us” in domestic affairs if he were re-elected.

Kelly shot back, “We had four years of Trump. Trump didn’t go after his political enemies with the Justice Department, that was Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.”

President Joe Biden has not initiated any of the many legal actions against Trump. They were brought by state and local authorities and there is no evidence of collusion between them and the White House.

Maher made another Hitler comparison, noting that the Nazi dictator did not implement his most despicable and autocratic policies until years after he took power.

“Well, we had Hitler in the 1930s and everything was going well, and then we had Hitler in the 1940s and things got much worse. Just because we had him…” he said, before Kelly interrupted him.

“Did he hide his Hitlerism for the first four years and will he come out in full force in the second term?” she said, in rhetorical reference to Trump.

Maher responded, “Well, he tried to do things like that, he tried to do dictatorial, fascist things and he was stopped.”

Kelly then repeated her baseless claim that Biden and Kamala Harris have “unleashed this Justice Department against their political enemy Donald Trump, their main rival for the presidency.”

Maher’s studio audience laughed at her statement, she lashed out at them, “Is it funny?” Because they did it. If you want to talk about fascism, that’s fascist.”

Once the audience had calmed down, Maher closed the topic by saying, “I don’t think history will be kind to your position.”

General John Kelly, who served as Trump’s White House chief of staff for 18 months, this week called his former boss the “definition of fascist.”

He claimed Trump once said “Hitler did some good things” and praised the Nazi dictator for “rebuilding the economy.”

Kelly said it too The Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday, Trump said he wanted his staff to be more like ‘German generals’ World War II‘ because they were ‘completely loyal’ to Hitler.

He claimed that Trump “certainly prefers the dictatorial approach to government” and “never accepted that he was not the most powerful man in the world.”

When he read a textbook definition of fascism during an audio interview with the New York Times, he compared it to Trump’s worldview.

He described the ideology as a “far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, coercive suppression of opposition and belief in a natural social hierarchy.”

Kelly said that, in “my experience,” he felt Trump believed these ideologies would “work better in terms of governing America.”

He also claimed that Trump was irritated by the limitations of his power and longed for the “ability to do anything he wanted, whenever he wanted,” which Kelly said was Trump’s experience in the business world.

In a separate interview with The Atlantic, Kelly claimed that Trump became more interested in the “benefits of dictatorship” and “absolute control of the military” as his Oval Office term came to an end.

‘I need the kind of generals Hitler had. People who were completely loyal to him, who followed orders,” he claimed during a private conversation at the White House.

The Trump campaign hit back at Kelly’s claims in a statement to the NYT, saying the former political consultant “has completely betrayed himself with these debunked stories that he has fabricated.”

It also denied the conversation, which Kelly told The Atlantic, saying, “This is absolutely not true. President Trump never said this.”